It looks as though you missed the fact that Apple will sell you a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor, as you could have used that to hook up to a high speed LAN for much less than this dock. Of course, that would leave you without simultaneous external monitor support.

I am not sure I understand complaining about the lack of portability of a dock. They are typically meant to live in one place. In fact, I've rarely seen a dock that was more portable than the laptop that docked with it.

It looks as though you missed the fact that Apple will sell you a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor, as you could have used that to hook up to a high speed LAN for much less than this dock. Of course, that would leave you without simultaneous external monitor support.

It looks as though you missed the section in the article where the author writes..

Quote:

Thunderbolt-powered 1Gbps Ethernet adapters arrived last year, finally, but those devices lack flexibility—they take the entire Thunderbolt port when connected and, at least on MacBook Airs that only have the one port, they leave you Thunderbolt-less.

That power brick is huge. I mean, seriously, it's much bigger than my Thinkpad brick. 2 TB ports + 3 USB3 ports = ~50watts (if I recall the specs correctly), so what else are they packing in that thing?

I understand having something external because it makes it easier to sell into countries (which all have different power grids), but that is silly.

I hate to be the Apple hater on this thread but somebody has to point out the silliness of this particular Ars genre of gear review: stuff I need to make my beautiful Apple gear useful.

It would make more sense to talk about "The Bad" for the mid-2011 13" MacBook Air:Requires $299 dock with giant power brick because Apple wouldn't pay ($5?) to enable USB 3.0 on either of the USB ports. And I had to wait until mid-2013 for somebody to even offer this "solution".

I don't think it is fair to dock it for not being portable. In my view, docks are not mean to be portable. What you want is a different device designed for portability. There are other thunderbolt "docks" that might be more portable.

If I could afford a Mac I wouldnt bother with price. I want it, because theyre good machines, but then I look at the stuff that I dont have to worry about. Especialy the peripherals that are never coming out like MSIs GUS II. Wish TB was cheaper.

I am not sure I understand complaining about the lack of portability of a dock. They are typically meant to live in one place. In fact, I've rarely seen a dock that was more portable than the laptop that docked with it.

Imho, their design is somewhat falling short and at that price it's hardly excusable. Adding the volume and weight of the powerbrick to the dock would have made it way more portable, just one thing to carry around and it's also self-contained on your desk.

I have a few powerbricks behind my desk, I interact with them more often then the devices they are powering: each time I vacuum ! Hello Xbox360 powerbrick! You're helping me clean my apartment by trapping dirt and cat hairs with your ribbed shell, you shouldn't have!

The dock's design also fails with the port placement, it would not have much harder to put the audio and maybe two usb ports in the front.

Forgive me, I have nothing of value to contribute to the discussion regarding the thunderbolt dock. I do, however, think that it is *fucking* rad that Lee is apparently an EFF member/supporter and rocking the sticker pack on his Mac. Well done.

That power brick is huge. I mean, seriously, it's much bigger than my Thinkpad brick. 2 TB ports + 3 USB3 ports = ~50watts (if I recall the specs correctly), so what else are they packing in that thing?

I understand having something external because it makes it easier to sell into countries (which all have different power grids), but that is silly.

Most power bricks these days are 100-240v 47-63Hz models that will work anywhere on the globe with just a different power cable. The only major exception to this are devices with AC electric motors because they use the AC waveform as part of their control system.

It would make more sense to talk about "The Bad" for the mid-2011 13" MacBook Air:Requires $299 dock with giant power brick because Apple wouldn't pay ($5?) to enable USB 3.0 on either of the USB ports. And I had to wait until mid-2013 for somebody to even offer this "solution".

I'm not so sure it was Apple being cheap. My memory may be a bit foggy, but I thought USB 3.0 capable motherboards didn't start coming out until 2010, and even then, there were only a few. Same for USB 3.0 controllers. I don't think Intel provided a chipset until 2012, trying to push their Thunderbolt as the next high speed interface, but there were a few others that had come out.

I think the lack of USB 3.0 support in the mid-2011 MBA was more due to USB 3.0 being too new to the market during the design of that year's MBA platform.

I am not sure I understand complaining about the lack of portability of a dock. They are typically meant to live in one place. In fact, I've rarely seen a dock that was more portable than the laptop that docked with it.

typically sure, but i appreciate that he mentioned it.

I like to know when something has a power brick, manufacturers will leave it out in product shot and it can be a rude surprise.

I am not sure I understand complaining about the lack of portability of a dock. They are typically meant to live in one place. In fact, I've rarely seen a dock that was more portable than the laptop that docked with it.

Imho, their design is somewhat falling short and at that price it's hardly excusable. Adding the volume and weight of the powerbrick to the dock would have made it way more portable, just one thing to carry around and it's also self-contained on your desk.

I have a few powerbricks behind my desk, I interact with them more often then the devices they are powering: each time I vacuum ! Hello Xbox360 powerbrick! You're helping me clean my apartment by trapping dirt and cat hairs with your ribbed shell, you shouldn't have!

The dock's design also fails with the port placement, it would not have much harder to put the audio and maybe two usb ports in the front.

It's not that bad, it's just that it could have been so much better

It is a dock. By definition it is not portable. I have no idea where people are getting the idea that it should be portable.

I hate to be the Apple hater on this thread but somebody has to point out the silliness of this particular Ars genre of gear review: stuff I need to make my beautiful Apple gear useful.

It would make more sense to talk about "The Bad" for the mid-2011 13" MacBook Air:Requires $299 dock with giant power brick because Apple wouldn't pay ($5?) to enable USB 3.0 on either of the USB ports. And I had to wait until mid-2013 for somebody to even offer this "solution".

Nice review of the dock though.

And I hate to be the Apple defender (feels weird), but I think the point is that these ultraportable notebooks all sacrifice flexibility and power to some extent. It's the tradeoff they make for people whose typical usage favors portability in most scenarios. It sounds like the notebook is a great fit for the author in most cases but the dock seems to be a way to add back some of the capabilities lost to thinness and lightness.

If your typical case favors portability 97% of the time and the ability to hook up high-bandwidth peripherals 3% of the time, it seems like a dock at your desk is a good workaround. Sure, the power brick is clunky but it's meant to live on your desk. That way when you get home from toting around your fancy-pants ultra-thin laptop, you can plug in a single cable and do things like transfer large files or output to dual monitors.

I am not sure I understand complaining about the lack of portability of a dock. They are typically meant to live in one place. In fact, I've rarely seen a dock that was more portable than the laptop that docked with it.

But is it really a dock? When I think of a dock for a laptop I think of a large stationary device that latches onto my laptop through some built-in connector, and remains more or less permanently attached to other large devices at my desk. A small device that attaches with a cable is really more of an adapter. We generally expect our adapters to be portable.

Is there an understanding why this is so expensive? A 4 port ethernet switch can be found for $15 and a usb hub for around $15, meaning the actual connectors are available to the manufacturer for maybe $1 each. So, there are maybe $10 of connectors on it. There is also a controller that allows things to work.

Does the controller cpu and auxiliary chip(s) cost the manufacturer more than $200? Or, do the controller cpu and auxiliary chip(s) cost more like $30 but there is such an incredibly low volume on this product that they need a huge markup to recoup engineering costs?

I hate to be the Apple hater on this thread but somebody has to point out the silliness of this particular Ars genre of gear review: stuff I need to make my beautiful Apple gear useful.

It would make more sense to talk about "The Bad" for the mid-2011 13" MacBook Air:Requires $299 dock with giant power brick because Apple wouldn't pay ($5?) to enable USB 3.0 on either of the USB ports. And I had to wait until mid-2013 for somebody to even offer this "solution".

Nice review of the dock though.

USB 3.0 wasn't natively integrated into the chipsets back then. Apple would have had to have added a buggy 3rd party controller to try and get USB 3.0 support into that MBA back then, and Apple prefers to keep the amount of buggy to a minimum. I hate to be Captain Obvious here, but Apple MBAs are not thoroughly considered to be among the best laptops on the market because you have to buy a $300 dock to use them... because you don't have to. I know Windows and Linux fanboys alike love the MacBook Air because it is the best, and they don't even use the Mac side of it.

The newest ones have USB 3.0 in all their USB ports, have Thunderbolt, and an SD card slot. What dock do you need then? I don't really know what you're talking about. That's before we mention that the newest one has 12 to 13 hours of battery life, as rated by Engadget and others.

/disclaimer: I don't own an MBA. I don't even own a laptop. I firmly believe a tablet and a desktop are the best combination of power and portability. If I did buy a laptop, it would probably be this one, but I have no plans to purchase a laptop any time soon.

Last weekend I set up a new 13" MBA for one of our users, in the process dealing with the port issues that are inherent to the MBA's design. I would have liked to buy the Belkin, but considering its price, and the additional need to buy an expensive T'bolt cable, decided not to.

Instead I picked up a TB to FW800 adapter (for ongoing maintenance needs) and a third party USB to gigabit ethernet adapter, which works nicely enough for $30. (This MBA's TB port is in use for a desktop monitor.)

I'd have bought the Belkin for $199 including a 6-ft TB cable. For $299 and not even including the cable, no.

That ugly and oversized power brick is simply insulting. The MBA's own power adapter is smaller, better designed, better looking, and is universal voltage/frequency.

That brick shows how much they value form over function. If thunderbolt is going to be widely adopted (outside of a small group of specilaized Mac users) the price of the cables and accessories needs to drop significantly and quickly.

vibedog: Thunderbolt is crazy expensive because of the ridiculously high licensing fees and the market is small enough that there is no volume to drive prices down.

Forgive me, I have nothing of value to contribute to the discussion regarding the thunderbolt dock. I do, however, think that it is *fucking* rad that Lee is apparently an EFF member/supporter and rocking the sticker pack on his Mac. Well done.

The stickers actually are from the Bitcoin-plus-cash donation to the EFF Ars made as a result of our review of the Butterfly Labs "Jalapeño" Bitcoin miner. In lieu of T-shirts or other swag, I asked the EFF to send us a bunch of sticker packs, which I have and will be distributing to the rest of Ars

The price is high when you consider there is no Thunderbolt cable. Though to be fair, docking solutions for other laptops aren't much cheaper. Lenovo's docking stations cost from $220-$270 with USB 3.0.

That said, I'm still on the fence (leaning to no) on getting one. I have a 2011 MBP and I go between two offices (home and work) with it frequently enough that a single cable (OK 2 cable) solution would be nice, but probably not THAT nice.

It looks as though you missed the fact that Apple will sell you a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor, as you could have used that to hook up to a high speed LAN for much less than this dock. Of course, that would leave you without simultaneous external monitor support.

It looks as though you missed the section in the article where the author writes..

Quote:

Thunderbolt-powered 1Gbps Ethernet adapters arrived last year, finally, but those devices lack flexibility—they take the entire Thunderbolt port when connected and, at least on MacBook Airs that only have the one port, they leave you Thunderbolt-less.

What I really want is just a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter for the price of apples thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor.

Is there an understanding why this is so expensive? A 4 port ethernet switch can be found for $15 and a usb hub for around $15, meaning the actual connectors are available to the manufacturer for maybe $1 each. So, there are maybe $10 of connectors on it. There is also a controller that allows things to work.

Does the controller cpu and auxiliary chip(s) cost the manufacturer more than $200? Or, do the controller cpu and auxiliary chip(s) cost more like $30 but there is such an incredibly low volume on this product that they need a huge markup to recoup engineering costs?

Perhaps it is expensive because Belkin had to make it work the way Apple though it shoud perform, instead of the way Belkin wants it to perform... (yes this is an insult towards Belkin... as a result of their crappy wireless routers ... I.e. Vision one... looked great, but what a "great" sh**y piece of un-finished work!... d**m thing needed to be reset every two weeks due to time server issues Internal to the router)

It looks as though you missed the fact that Apple will sell you a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor, as you could have used that to hook up to a high speed LAN for much less than this dock. Of course, that would leave you without simultaneous external monitor support.

It looks as though you missed the section in the article where the author writes..

Quote:

Thunderbolt-powered 1Gbps Ethernet adapters arrived last year, finally, but those devices lack flexibility—they take the entire Thunderbolt port when connected and, at least on MacBook Airs that only have the one port, they leave you Thunderbolt-less.

What I really want is just a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter for the price of apples thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor.

You want to slow Thunderbolt down is what you're saying. You do realize that, right?

It would make more sense to talk about "The Bad" for the mid-2011 13" MacBook Air:Requires $299 dock with giant power brick because Apple wouldn't pay ($5?) to enable USB 3.0 on either of the USB ports. And I had to wait until mid-2013 for somebody to even offer this "solution".

I'm not so sure it was Apple being cheap. My memory may be a bit foggy, but I thought USB 3.0 capable motherboards didn't start coming out until 2010, and even then, there were only a few. Same for USB 3.0 controllers. I don't think Intel provided a chipset until 2012, trying to push their Thunderbolt as the next high speed interface, but there were a few others that had come out.

I think the lack of USB 3.0 support in the mid-2011 MBA was more due to USB 3.0 being too new to the market during the design of that year's MBA platform.

You memory serves you well. There were several factors in the delay with native USB 3.0 controllers including Intel trying to sell people on Thunderbolt, which I still argue is a better solution going forward.

OS X lack of adoption of USB 3.0 was because Apple options were limited for a chipset, they just delayed their adoption, the lack of support for the true potential of USB 3.0 for this dock wierd though.

It looks as though you missed the fact that Apple will sell you a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor, as you could have used that to hook up to a high speed LAN for much less than this dock. Of course, that would leave you without simultaneous external monitor support.

It looks as though you missed the section in the article where the author writes..

Quote:

Thunderbolt-powered 1Gbps Ethernet adapters arrived last year, finally, but those devices lack flexibility—they take the entire Thunderbolt port when connected and, at least on MacBook Airs that only have the one port, they leave you Thunderbolt-less.

What I really want is just a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter for the price of apples thunderbolt to Ethernet adaptor.

You want to slow Thunderbolt down is what you're saying. You do realize that, right?

No he's saying he wants to be able to connect hardware that actually exists and is affordable.

I've a MBA for about a year now, and I think it's a wonderful self-contained device. But once you try to get it to work together with anything else, it's just downright horrid. And this expensive dock is just to top it off.

For what it's worth, you probably won't need that sketchy USB 3.0 driver for Windows 8 since it has generic support for those devices built in the same way USB 2.0 just works in previous versions of Windows.

Thanks so much for checking it out in Windows. I run Boot Camp on my MacBook Air, but I only use the Windows install (if I knew how, I'd reclaim the storage lost to the OS X partition, too). I use my Thunderbolt port for an Ethernet adapter, and I have a very full USB hub plugged into the adjacent USB port. This will free up my USB port, give me an Ethernet port, and "free up" my Thunderbolt port. Fantastic.

I've a MBA for about a year now, and I think it's a wonderful self-contained device. But once you try to get it to work together with anything else, it's just downright horrid. And this expensive dock is just to top it off.

I'm not so sure it was Apple being cheap. My memory may be a bit foggy, but I thought USB 3.0 capable motherboards didn't start coming out until 2010, and even then, there were only a few. Same for USB 3.0 controllers. I don't think Intel provided a chipset until 2012, trying to push their Thunderbolt as the next high speed interface, but there were a few others that had come out.

I think the lack of USB 3.0 support in the mid-2011 MBA was more due to USB 3.0 being too new to the market during the design of that year's MBA platform.

Yes, there was no 3.0 as Apple and Intel were pushing TB. Also, 3.0 wasn't native, meaning Apple would've needed to use another thirdparty controller to add support. Most non-Apple computers at the time had at least one usb 3.0 port, and they worked well.

USB 3.0 wasn't natively integrated into the chipsets back then. Apple would have had to have added a buggy 3rd party controller to try and get USB 3.0 support into that MBA back then, and Apple prefers to keep the amount of buggy to a minimum.

Idk about buggy, I haven't had any issues with usb 3.0 on any of my non-native controllers - some were probably buggy, not all.